Three Little Girls Lost

September 2, 2002

            Many years ago, even as a little girl, I think I had three ambitions for my life.  I know they will not seem too ambitious to most people.  The first one came true much sooner than I expected.           I remember my Daddy telling me when I was 15 years old, “Gladys, you had better get out in the kitchen and learn to do some cooking.”  And I very seriously said “why?  I’m not getting married until I’m 25".

            My earliest memory seems to be when I was 2 years old.  We were visiting at a friend’s house in what is called “the valley” in El Paso.  Being just a baby, probably still wearing a diaper, drooping around my ankles, I felt this awful pain in the left side of my face.  The terrible pain and blood everywhere.  I seem to remember being scooped up and taken to the hospital.  William Beaumont hospital in El Paso.  The doctor was very upset because no one knew the cause.  There were guesses that maybe a sharp rock or maybe a dog had bit my face.  All my baby teeth that I had were gone.  My upper lip was torn open and the tear had gone all the way to the left corner of my eye.  To this day, the muscles don’t work in that side of my face.  The year was 1938, the world was gearing up for what turned out to be World War II and the whole world was watching Adolph Hitler and his plans for domination of the world.  Since my Daddy was in the army, the doctors were in the army, my face took second place in priority.  The surgeons were planning plastic surgery, after I healed some.  But fate happens.  Japan changed all that on Dec. 7, 1941.  So the whole base got moving and getting all of Fort Bliss ready to ship out on a moments notice.  This included getting rid of the horses.  I can still see the soldiers leading their own horse up the ramps leading to the stock cars standing on the tracks.

            I had never seen grown men crying and these men did cry like babies because each man’s horse was his lifeline to getting back to the fort.  Of course, I didn’t understand it all.  My own Daddy was crying and standing as tall as the next man.  Then we got word they were going on maneuvers and that scared me bad.  I cried for days.  It seemed nobody thought of the kids and never did any explaining.  They went on maneuvers several times after that.  Then came Japan.  Then Fort Bliss got their ship out orders.  Well, when I heard that, I was one happy little girl.  I thought there would be no more maneuvers, which meant Daddy would be safe.  After all, I was only 5 years old.  Let me tell you, I never knew how lucky I was to just have worry about maneuvers.

            My mother was left to take care of me and my 2 sisters.  I was what was called the baby of the family.  and the most inclined to go exploring.  Didn’t ever worry at that age that there were bad people out there...And it started in my own house.  My mother was a very poor excuse for a mother.  We girls went to bed many a night hungry, while she sat in the dining room entertaining her men friends.  We were so hungry we would go out and hunt through garbage cans for scrapes of food...  She didn’t bathe us, comb our hair or feed us.  The favorite thing was to send us to the movies.  I would go to church to try to find love and companionship.  That was another path I tried to follow.

            The Red Cross got wind of our state of affairs and sent Daddy home from the South Pacific on a hardship leave.  So the first thing that happened was my folks got a divorce.  Never will I forget the judge asking me who I wanted to go with, my mother or my Dad, who had been gone for 4 years.  Not a good idea.  It split my loyalties.

            And made me feel like a traitor no matter who I chose.  So I refused to pick.  The last day I saw my mother,

she came out to Logan Heights to get her belongings.  I just sat there feeling like I was dying.  I have never felt that

feeling before and hope I never do again.